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YAERG - Yet Another Emate Repair Guide

Thanks to Doug-Doug the Mighty, I now have two emates - both in need of some repair work.

Using naming DDTM has established (and description text):aka #55
Case Condition: Excellent.
Name Card: Present
Hinge: Needs work
Battery: Good
Display: Excellent
Touch Screen: Works
Stylus: No
Remarks: Hinges are not too bad but lid will fall shut when you are in the process of closing. From what I have seen so far, this may be as simple as tighening the screws holding the hinge to the motherboard and/or lid. It does tend to stay pu when at a viewable angle. Sound is weak through the speaker, not sure why.

aka #67
Case Condition: Good - Minor white scuffs that could be cleaned up with some effort. Cardbus slot missing lower door. Minor scuffing of Apple logo on top of lid.
Name Card: Missing
Hinge: Needs rebuilding/repair
Battery: Good
Display: Poor - Right half is bad, having horizontal lines running up to middle of display.
Touch Screen: Works - but apears affected by display issue above.
Stylus: No

I used two vise-grips to unwind the spring, and was able to push them back onto the shaft by hand. I used general-purpose auto grease to lubricate the hinges.

note to me check these again in a year or two for dryness

The ribbon cable has gone through the repair process described at Joel Sciamma's site:

Warning: Even with a magnifier, this will really strain your eyes working on these bloody wee traces. I had to take a break every 10 minutes or so, and I've got really good eyesight. Well, had until this...

emate is repaired, and back together (despite spending a big chunk of the day woodworking).

Hinges are a bit loose, and lid will fall forward, but stays in position upright and tilted back. I've already tried to tighten the hinges back up a bit, I think I'll leave it alone now (edit: no I didn't. They're rebuilt again and firmed up. I just gave the hinges a bit of a squeeze with the vise grips). Hinges are now greased with CV axle grease - it's a bit thicker than the genereal purpose, and is the same colour as the emate

LCD cable repaired and protected with a bit of black tape over solder repairs.

Display, digitizer and backlight working perfectly.

White scuff marks on case have been removed with - frighteningly enough - a wire brush attachment on the Dremel. Cleaned areas look as new, aside from any pre-existing scratches. I didn't want to Dremel too hard in case friction melted the plastic making the scratches worse.

Battery needs (edit: leaving alone. It just needed to be left attached to AC long enough to remind the batteries to charge.)

Speaker was found to be broken. There was a staple between the speaker and case, so I'm assuming boys will be boys and one went about the scientific experiment of "what happens when I repeatedly poke the emate's spealer with a bent staple?"

I took a speaker out of a dead PB160 and soldered leads to it that would reach the motherboard speaker solder points. The speake fits perfectly if pushed up against the bezel of the lid switch and slightly under the original speaker mounting plastics, which if loose, can then be tightened to hold the new speaker in place perfectly.

Hinges were rebuilt and lubed, washer fix applied.

There was a small piece of case plastic broken off under one of the lower case screws. I found the yellow glue for PVC pipe works perfectly on this type of plastic. Use as little as possible otherwise excess glue dries and leaves yellow areas.

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